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The people doing the real cutting edge stuff have historically been ostracized and unpopular for one reason or another (Tesla, Alan Turing, Galileo). Once it's

The people doing the real cutting edge stuff have historically been ostracized and unpopular for one reason or another (Tesla, Alan Turing, Galileo). Once it's within the zeitgeist of the influencers it's already old news. Talk to the people who are clearly smart but not being listened to.

champagnois 5y ago
Such people would be banned from nearly any platform for posting controversial or unpopular content. Snopes and politico would fact check them with a mostly false rating. Etc. The collective masses are always a bit arrogant in their praise of existing dogma.
tommydoesntknow 5y ago
“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” —Jonathan Swift
starwind 5y ago
Not sure these are the best examples. Tesla did some amazing engineering but had some crank beliefs (he thought special and general relativity were nonsense and didn't believe in electrons) and if he was personally unpopular it was probably due more to his seclusion than anything else Alan Turning was very well respected in his day and prosecuted because he was gay like many men in mid-century Britain. Galileo antagonized his opponents and got on the wrong side of the Pope. Copernicus avoided persecution without compromising his beliefs https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0219/Copernicus-and-the-Church-What-the-history-books-don-t-say https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0219/Copernicus-an...
- willcipriano 5y ago
  That's my point, people who change the world are going to be eccentric. Ideas that are ahead of their time will seem really weird, you need weird people to create and champion weird ideas. Not all of them will be good mind you, but to have a chance of being on the cutting edge you sort of also have to position yourself on the periphery of society.
  - starwind 5y ago
    I don't buy that. Sure there's plenty of eccentric geniuses but I don't think you have to be on the periphery. Albert Einstein, Claude Shannon, and Edwin Hubble were all fairly popular, friendly people in their day
    - willcipriano 5y ago
      Now you may have a bad example, here is a except of letter from Albert Einstein to his wife where he outlined the conditions for their relationship: "B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego: 1. my sitting at home with you; 2. my going out or travelling with you. C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me: 1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way; 2. you will stop talking to me if I request it; 3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it." Further: "Einstein prized his solitude greatly. Another remark shows his difficulty with personal relationships. While he eventually fell in love with his cousin Elsa and finally divorced Mavic to marry her in 1919, that marriage too was troubled. Elsa died in 1936 soon after the couple moved to the U.S. Not long after her death, Einstein would write, “I have gotten used extremely well to life here. I live like a bear in my den…. This bearishness has been further enhanced by the death of my woman comrade, who was better with other people than I am.”[0] I don't argue that their aren't exceptions, but I believe my point is true in the general sense. [0]https://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-on-his-first-wife-a-cruel-list-of-marital-demands.html https://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-...

champagnois 5y ago

Such people would be banned from nearly any platform for posting controversial or unpopular content. Snopes and politico would fact check them with a mostly false rating. Etc. The collective masses are always a bit arrogant in their praise of existing dogma.

tommydoesntknow 5y ago

“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” —Jonathan Swift

starwind 5y ago

Not sure these are the best examples. Tesla did some amazing engineering but had some crank beliefs (he thought special and general relativity were nonsense and didn't believe in electrons) and if he was personally unpopular it was probably due more to his seclusion than anything else Alan Turning was very well respected in his day and prosecuted because he was gay like many men in mid-century Britain. Galileo antagonized his opponents and got on the wrong side of the Pope. Copernicus avoided persecution without compromising his beliefs https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0219/Copernicus-and-the-Church-What-the-history-books-don-t-say https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0219/Copernicus-an...

willcipriano 5y ago
That's my point, people who change the world are going to be eccentric. Ideas that are ahead of their time will seem really weird, you need weird people to create and champion weird ideas. Not all of them will be good mind you, but to have a chance of being on the cutting edge you sort of also have to position yourself on the periphery of society.
- starwind 5y ago
  I don't buy that. Sure there's plenty of eccentric geniuses but I don't think you have to be on the periphery. Albert Einstein, Claude Shannon, and Edwin Hubble were all fairly popular, friendly people in their day
  - willcipriano 5y ago
    Now you may have a bad example, here is a except of letter from Albert Einstein to his wife where he outlined the conditions for their relationship: "B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego: 1. my sitting at home with you; 2. my going out or travelling with you. C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me: 1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way; 2. you will stop talking to me if I request it; 3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it." Further: "Einstein prized his solitude greatly. Another remark shows his difficulty with personal relationships. While he eventually fell in love with his cousin Elsa and finally divorced Mavic to marry her in 1919, that marriage too was troubled. Elsa died in 1936 soon after the couple moved to the U.S. Not long after her death, Einstein would write, “I have gotten used extremely well to life here. I live like a bear in my den…. This bearishness has been further enhanced by the death of my woman comrade, who was better with other people than I am.”[0] I don't argue that their aren't exceptions, but I believe my point is true in the general sense. [0]https://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-on-his-first-wife-a-cruel-list-of-marital-demands.html https://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-...